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G_j

(40,366 posts)
Mon Mar 12, 2012, 01:57 PM Mar 2012

Somehow, the Word ‘Peace’ Got Lost

http://passblue.com/2012/03/09/somehow-talk-about-peace-has-been-lost/

UN WOMEN'S CONFERENCE 2012

Somehow, the Word ‘Peace’ Got Lost

by Cora Weiss • March 9, 2012

This essay was adapted from a speech that Cora Weiss, president of the Hague Appeal for Peace, a network of peace and justice groups, read as a panelist on the “Women, War and Peace” debate held during the 56th Commission on the Status of Women this month at the UN. The debate that Weiss spoke at, on March 1, showed a film, “Peace Unveiled,” about women in Afghanistan.

Who comes from a place where there has been violence or war?

I have enormous admiration and respect for the women of Afghanistan. I mourn with them for the loss of life, the wounded, the babies frozen to death in refugee camps, the destruction to their homes and communities. And I celebrate their determination to be at the peace table.

The question after so many years of war and waste is: When will we stop making war? When will the currency of foreign policy stop being weapons? When will be become exhausted from exhausting all nonlethal means of resolving conflict before resorting to violence? When will we implement the Charter of the United Nations, dedicated to preventing the scourge of war? When will women be at all the decision-making tables to prevent war and to design the peace?

Humanity has abolished slavery, colonialism, apartheid and the prohibition of women voting. Why can’t we abolish war?

We gather for the annual Commission on the Status of Women conference at this time of year because March 8 is International Women’s Day, voted by the General Assembly in 1975 to be the United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

Somehow, peace has gotten lost.

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Somehow, the Word ‘Peace’ Got Lost (Original Post) G_j Mar 2012 OP
is this place becoming a wasteland? G_j Mar 2012 #1
Who needs peace when we now have kinder gentler Democratic wars. Luminous Animal Mar 2012 #2
and Olive Garden (again? still?) Electric Monk Mar 2012 #3
Ooh! I missed that shiny object! Luminous Animal Mar 2012 #4
lord jesus G_j Mar 2012 #5
+ KG Mar 2012 #7
K&R woo me with science Mar 2012 #6
Peace needs better special effects gratuitous Mar 2012 #8
I am not a happy camper G_j Mar 2012 #9
+1 Luminous Animal Mar 2012 #10
..proposed a Cabinet-level agency devoted to peace.. G_j Mar 2012 #11

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)
8. Peace needs better special effects
Tue Mar 13, 2012, 11:54 AM
Mar 2012

I mean, peace doesn't blow stuff up reel gud, and you don't get to style yourself a war correspondent by covering peace. Our country, leader of the world, doesn't spend half its budget on peace, and peace doesn't write fat defense contracts. If you advocate for peace, you're immediately educated by the acolytes of the High Church of Redemptive Violence that the world is a very dangerous place, and if our country doesn't blow a bunch of people to smithereens, they might blow us to smithereens. And even if they can't, they might, and it's better to be "safe" than sorry.

Peace is for wimps and sissies. War is for manly men, armed to the teeth, who march shoulder to shoulder, blowing away women, kids and houses on command without remorse. We call that strength in this country, and we admire and celebrate it in every way possible, at all times and in all places. Any place showing insufficient celebration is itching for a visit from the devotees of the High Church, whose faith is our national religion, not to be questioned or doubted. It is our reason for existence, and the nation would vanish if it doesn't vanquish.

G_j

(40,366 posts)
9. I am not a happy camper
Tue Mar 13, 2012, 01:20 PM
Mar 2012

Last edited Wed Mar 14, 2012, 11:46 AM - Edit history (1)

as I will be voting for drone strikes as opposed to psychos who would start a war with Iran.


war is the new normal, well.. not so new at all actually..
but I do remember shaking (spoiler) Eugene McCarthy's hand once a long time ago,
also supported (wacko) Kucinich more recently.

G_j

(40,366 posts)
11. ..proposed a Cabinet-level agency devoted to peace..
Wed Mar 14, 2012, 11:48 AM
Mar 2012
http://news.change.org/stories/the-u-s-department-of-peace-a-brief-history-and-bright-future

1783: George Washington called for a proper “Peace Establishment”.

1792: Benjamin Banneker and Dr. Benjamin Rush call for an “Office of Peace” with peace education in all schools.

1925: Carrie Chapman Catt of the National League of Women Voters at the “Cause and Cure for War” Conference, publicly suggested, a Cabinet level “Department of Peace" and “Secretary of Peace” be established.

1926/1927: Kirby Page author of "A National Peace Department" wrote, published and distributed the first proposal for a Cabinet level "Department of Peace" and "Secretary of Peace".

1936: Dr. Frederick Kettner publishes essay “The Need for a Secretary of Peace”.

1943 -1968: Eighty-eight Congressional bills are introduced calling for a Department of Peace in the House or Senate.

1961: President John F. Kennedy launches the Peace Corps.

1969: Senator Vance Hartke (IL), and Rep. Seymour Halpern (NY), introduce a Bill for a Department of Peace with a Peace Academy.

1984: The U.S. Institute of Peace created (its beautiful new building is currently under construction).

1993: President Bill Clinton launches Americorps.

2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (OH), and Sen. Mark Dayton (MN) introduce Bills calling for a Department of Peace (House-only since Sen. Dayton's announced retirement in 2005).

2010: The U.S. Department of Peace is named in Change.org's "Ideas for Change in America."



~~~~
http://www.betterworld.net/quotes/peacedepartment-quotes.htm

* "It is clear that military force and our policy of preemption are alone insufficient to make us safe. But help is on the way. Legislation has been proposed to create a US Department of Peace. In the propsed Department of Peace it would organize our present system into one conscious effort to improve humanity in achieving peace, where true safety lies."
-- Walter Cronkite

* On the whole our armed services have been doing pretty well in the way of keeping us defended, but I hope our State Department will remember that it is really the department of achieving peace.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

* As the War-Office of the United States was established in the time of peace, it is equally reasonable that a Peace-Office should be established in the time of war. -- Benjamin Rush

* Citizens across the United States are now uniting in a great cause to establish a Department of Peace, seeking nothing less than the transformation of our society, to make non-violence an organizing principle, to make war archaic through creating a paradigm shift in our culture for human development, for economic and political justice and for violence control.
-- Dennis Kucinich
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